24th June 2016

Blog: Highlights from the GRAPHISOFT Key Client Conference – Day Two

by Pantelis Ioannidis for JRA

On the second day of the conference, the opening presentation was delivered by Gabor Bojar, the founder of GRAPHISOFT, followed by Naveen Dath and Daniel Potts from Cottee Parker Architects, Australia. They showed how they utilise ARCHICAD on some of their major projects and shared their views on the future of our evolving industry. Shockingly, they predict that in a few years time, our employees will have never sketched on real paper, only on mobile devices!

Throughout the day, we also heard from Mauro Cattanes of BIM Factory, Italy and Carlos Jimenez of Liverpool, a well known retailer in Mexico. Cattanes showcased the work BIM Factory had done for Rome’s airport as BIM consultants, talking us through a fully coordinated and detailed model of the airport, combining the architectural, structural and services models.

Jimenez delivered his entire presentation on GRAPHISOFT’s mobile platform, BIMx, combining slides and models in a talk on how BIM is utilised in the retail industry. He described the collaboration with external consultants, libraries of modularised objects and the importance of easy access to asset information at any given time. Jimenez was followed by Frederico Ramos from AEDAS, Singapore. He spoke in detail on the BIM development and mandate in Singapore, using examples to provide insight into their internal workflows, which include the use of algorithmic modelling, an area yet to be widely explored by the majority of the AEC industry. He concluded his speech by saying that ‘we do architectural projects using BIM, we don’t do BIM projects’, a statement that I find very important for all who are involved (or others who are scared to be involved!) in BIM workflows. It reinforces my personal belief that BIM is business as usual and in a few years time, nobody will be talking about BIM projects, it will just be the norm, exactly as ‘CAD projects’ have been the norm for the last decades.

In the afternoon, the organisers shook things up with pick-and-mix, hands on sessions. I heard from Nathan Hildenbrandt from Fulton Trotter Architects on putting the ‘I in BIM’. The ‘BIMSons residence’ was used as his example to talk us through the way they validate their models at the different design stages. Nathan focused on the use of schedules in ARCHICAD, spreadsheets in Excel and rules in Solibri, as auditing mechanisms for several project requirements, for instance space areas against client requirements. This talk was further proof that BIM is not about 3D modelling, but about utilising the embedded information in different ways, like creating automated outputs or managing risks and acting proactively to minimise potential errors.

Rob Jackson presented his Villa Savoye Lego model through an OpenBIM workflow. A brilliant idea, that makes the complex concept of BIM easily understood by wide audiences without technical knowledge. Importantly he demonstrated the flexibility we have as ARCHICAD users to utilise the IFC scheme and control the way our information is delivered, through automated workflows. He finished his presentation with an augmented reality model of his Lego Villa Savoye.

The GRAPHISOFT KCC 2016 was a great success. I had the opportunity to attend some very interesting presentations, but most importantly to meet several like-minded people from around the world and exchange views, ideas and experiences. I would like to personally thank GRAPHISOFT UK for the invitation and JRA Architects for sponsoring my trip to Budapest.